Ramirez on “systemic failures”

posted at 12:15 pm on December 30, 2009 by Ed Morrissey

How do people feel about government taking over health care after the display of self-admitted “systemic failure” over the last few days on what should be the government’s primary role? Michael Ramirez puts it into perspective at Investors Business Daily as only the two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning editorial cartoonist can:

The TSA reference doesn’t spring so much from the botched attack itself, which was hardly the fault of TSA. After all, the US does not provide security in Lagos, Nigeria, or in Amsterdam. But the TSA’s Chicken Little responses — banning laptops and requiring people to remain seated in the final 60 minutes of the flight — showed an amazing ignorance of the actual incident. None of the measures would have stopped Umar Abdulmutallab from detonating his underwear bomb. It’s as if they had a playbook of new restrictions to slap onto travelers just in case something happened and they needed to look as though they were responding to it.

And this same kind of bureaucratic mentality will be coming for your health care soon, if Obama and the Democrats get their way, as will the competence displayed by everyone in the loop who should have stopped Abdulmutallab from getting on that airplane.

Ramirez has a terrific collection of his works: Everyone Has the Right to My Opinion, which covers the entire breadth of Ramirez’ career, and it gives a fascinating look at political history. Read my review here, and watch my interviews with Ramirez here and here. And don’t forget to check out the entire Investors.com site, which has now incorporated all of the former IBD Editorials, while individual investors still exist.

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Remember that Sherriff Andy would allow Barney Fife to carry only one bullet in his pocket.

That’s about what Obama has done to our national security apparatus, what with prosecuting CIA operatives, prosecuting Navy Seals for giving a killer-terrorist a bloody nose, the decisions to try terrorists in NYC and to close Gitmo and send the enemy to Yemen or Illinois, the imposition of unrealistically strict ROEs in theatre, the stopping construction of the border fence…

No laptops, iPods, coats on laps, movement out of seats in the last hour of a flight? I see their plan…they’re going to reduce terrorist attacks on flights by making sure that no one wants to ever fly again.

It’s so crazy it just might work!

(I wonder how many more blood clots people are going to get if they’re forced to be immoble for that last hour btw?)

“You know, we could pay for healthcare by taxing terrorist acts. As those nutty conservatives always say ‘if you want to get rid of something, tax it.’ Moreover, we could develop terrorism cap-and-trade legislation that would allow countries with no terrorism plans to sell their terrorism credits on the free market to countries and even non-state actors who perform a lot of terroristic acts. The act would specify annual reductions in the quantity of credits available, thereby reducing the threat of terrorism to the pre-1980 levels overtime, giving terrorists time to find ways to conduct green terrorism and create green jobs.”

Michael Ramirez it always brilliant. But I hope he and we would add profuse and heart felt apologies to the late Don Knott’s family. Don’t think Don would have appreciated the association with the horrendous bungling of TSA/Congress/The President and the countless obscure parts of our illustrious guvmint monster.

And this same kind of bureaucratic mentality will be coming for your health care soon, if Obama and the Democrats get their way, as will the competence displayed by everyone in the loop who should have stopped Abdulmutallab from getting on that airplane.

My two (Dem) Senators caved with the vow that if the final bill didn’t look like the one they voted for in the Senate, they’d withhold support. It is, obviously, a big fat lie.

While I would wish Obamacare go down in flames, the reality is that we need to go into damage control and get rid of the worst of the worst aspects of the plan the Dems have manage to craft without any GOP input. We also need to make it emphasize is that this utterly evil bill is all the work of a single political party looking to take over one-sixth of the economy. Then, we need to work to get the Congress so overturned to dismantle Obamacare bit by bit in 2011.

Obamacare will pass but that doesn’t mean it is the moment to be silent.

But the “gun” in Obama TSA’s hand….. I don’t see it. I would have to be pepper spray or a taser a marker and eraser for a white board (excuse me, “board without color”) and a stack of post-it notes. Not a gun.

But the TSA’s Chicken Little responses — banning laptops and requiring people to remain seated in the final 60 minutes of the flight — showed an amazing ignorance of the actual incident.

Oh, and we can’t hide our hands during the last hour either. Sorry, can’t fill out that customs form, because I’d have to hide my hands to get a pen.

What’s so special about the last hour of flight anyway? A terrorist could explode a plane over the ocean earlier in the flight! For an overland flight, the plane could be taken down over a big city more than an hour before landing.

So let me get this straight- now that we won’t be allowed to go to the bathroom on flights, won’t that mean that more people will have to wear depends, and then that will call for more screening of everyone’s suspicious underpants? If this wasn’t so serious, it would be hilarious.

think the 1-hour-in-your-seat rule is unnecessarily strict. There should be a 1-finger-or-2-fingers rule. All those not holding up fingers can play the quiet game.

Bugler on December 30, 2009 at 12:34 PM

Due to the manner in which alleged human disaster causer Abdulmatullab allegedly attempted to detonate himself, the TSA has implemented new regulations forbidding passengers from touching their genital areas in airplanes outside the lavatories.

The American Civil Liberties Union has filed suit to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in protest of the new regulation on behalf of plaintiffs Levi Johnston (father of former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin’s grandson), Joycelyn Elders, and the estate of Michael Jackson.

So let me get this straight- now that we won’t be allowed to go to the bathroom on flights, won’t that mean that more people will have to wear depends, and then that will call for more screening of everyone’s suspicious underpants? If this wasn’t so serious, it would be hilarious.

Kristamatic on December 30, 2009 at 1:46 PM

Not at all. Here’s how the conversation goes:

“Excuse me, stewardess….can I get a big, empty cup?”

followed shortly thereafter with:

“Oh stewardess…can you take this garbage for me? Be careful you don’t spill it.”

I really did this while sitting on the runway waiting to take off in St. Louis, circa 1988.

None of the measures would have stopped Umar Abdulmutallab from detonating his underwear bomb.

I agree that they are overreacting, but there is a logic to the new rules. They are trying to prevent someone from being able to take a syringe and inject the acid into the explosives concealed in their underwear without being seen by the crew or other passengers. That’s why they are prohibiting blankets, coats across your lap, laptops, and visits to the bathrooms. If everyone has an unobstructed view of your lap, you won’t be able to use the syringe without drawing attention.

I suppose we are lucky that they are only applying the rules to the last hour of flight, at least for now.